Why can't more than one person have a key?

mrsconn23 · April 2016

Dear Prudence,
Please help us settle an office dispute. We have an employee, “Anne,” whose job description includes opening the office in the morning. She has three kids and a disabled husband, and is often late, leaving employees standing around outside in all kinds of weather. Anne is well-liked by employees and clients, and she fulfills all other aspects of her job beautifully. Unfortunately, she’s about to be fired because of her tardiness, which would negatively impact the entire company. One manager supports firing her, saying that opening the office is in her job description. Another manager wants to keep her on while changing her hours and letting someone else open the office. Manager X thinks that Anne needs to learn a lesson; Manager Y feels that compromising is more important than losing a good employee. What do you think?

—Carrying the Keys

banana468 · April 2016

What do they do when Anne goes on vacation or has a legitimate sick day??

Constant tardiness is its own issue and I'm not a fan of creating a different schedule if a person can't do the job. There are two big issues here:

1) There needs to be a backup plan. Not having one is poor management and those two managers should be ashamed of themselves. That they're fine leaving employees unable to do their jobs for this long is piss poor management.

2) Have they disciplined Anne? Does she know she's about to be fired? Have they talked about this issue with her to let her know that this could be it? Because again, if Anne's about to be fired and she doesn't know it then they're shitty managers.

MesmrEwe · April 2016

1) If she's otherwise fulfilling all other job duties fully and completely, above and beyond, customers like her, is a diligent and competent worker - time to make another key or switch that duty to someone else..

2) Changing her schedule isn't going to change the systemic issue, and firing her "to send a message" is a jerk-move if she's fulfilling the remainder of her duties and is otherwise a great employee.

3) The one manager wants her gone and is going to go above and beyond to make it so. What X doesn't understand is that it's not going to "send a message" other than he's a phallic symbol of his personality.

4) But changing a job description is SO HARD! Good Heaven's - I loved LFIL's approach to our jobs - "If you're paid above minimum wage and a minimum wage task needs to be done, you see it needing to be done, DO IT because you're paid to do that job and whatever else you're competent at doing!" And, he would lead by example!

SP29 · April 2016

I see a big lack of communication.

I agree there needs to be another plan in place regarding opening the office.

I also agree that Anne's issue with tardiness needs to be deal with directly between the managers and Anne, prior to firing her. I also think, that like an adult, Anne should also approach her managers on her own end and let them know, "I'm having some issues at home that affect my job duties". As a manager, I would be more than willing to accommodate someone who addresses their own weaknesses and approaches me with a problem and hopefully solution, rather than being a manager who has to chase down an employee.

Why can't more than one person have a key?

Re: Why can't more than one person have a key?

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